— 2 years ago(June 15, 2023 08:22 AM)

The Beirut explosion
= #5.
Aug 4th, 2020; 0.50–1.12 kt (2.09–4.69 TJ);
Beirut
,
Lebanon
. 220* DEATHS!
The Halifax explosion
= #4.
Dec 6th,1917; 2.9 kt (12 TJ);
Halifax
,
Nova Scotia
,
Canada
. 1963 DEATHS!
The Mongo explosion
. < There was NO
Mongo explosion
. GUESS where
Mongo
IS?
The N1 ROCKET EXPLOSION!!
= #1!
July 3rd,1969; 7.0 kt (29 TJ);
Baikonur Cosmodrome
,
Soviet Union
. DEATHS N/A!!
Operation big bang
:
Heligoland islands
= #3.
April 18th,1947; 3.2 kt;
Heligoland Islands
,
UK
. 0 DEATHS! (test). The energy released was 1.3×1013 J, or about 3.2 kilotons of TNT equivalent, making it the largest artificial non-nuclear explosion at that time.
#2? = 4.8 kt.
This list is measured in kilotons of
tnt
, so what exactly is a
kiloton
?
A
kiloton
is the equivalent of 1000 tons of
tnt
and 1000 tons of
tnt
sure is a lot. We could talk about
tnt
equivalencies and
gigajoules
and all that scientific stuff and everything, but why don't we just show you what a
one

kiloton
explosion looks like instead?
1! The
Russian
Rocket That Blew Up Big Time:
The
N1 Rocket
was the
Soviet
counterpart to the
USA
's mighty
Saturn V
rocket. The
N1
's first stage is still the most powerful ever built and it had over 30 engines and was a pretty darn complicated piece of
Russian
engineering at the time. That's probably why it blew up. The
Russians
really wanted to beat the
American Saturn V
rocket to the
Moon
by giving their rocket lots and lots of thrust (lots), however the poor reliability of the
N1 Rocket
was blamed upon its overly complex design and probably too many engines, and, on July 3rd, 1969 it exploded like a
mini

nuclear bomb
on the launchpad.
It is considered to be the largest man-made non-nuclear explosion of its kind in history. Accurate casualty information on that explosion is really hard to come by, because hey, we're talking about the 1960s
Soviet Union
here, but we really doubt it was zero. By the way, the
Russians
may have messed that one up but they hold the impressive record for the most powerful nuclear bomb/explosion ever, otherwise known as the "Mother of All Bombs." We here find it ironic that the
Russians
have caused two of the largest explosions on the face of planet Earth; one that they definitely did not intend, and one that they very much did.
*
The best picture of the exploding
Soviet N1 rocket
you
'
ll find
.
3. The
British
Make a really BIG Bang:
The
British Royal Navy
, probably because they absolutely wanted to thumb their nose at the
Germans
after the second world war, used the previously
German
uninhabited
Heligoland Islands
as a bombing range from 1945 to 1952. One day they decided they needed to dispose of all their thousands of pounds of unexploded ordinance (6800 tonnes to be exact) which they called "
Operation Big Bang
" because the
British
are well-known for their extremely dry wit. So they went ahead and caused the third biggest bang on our list.
The
British
being silly
.
4. The
Halifax Explosion
was
Hell
on
Earth
:
The
Halifax Explosion
, which took place in
Halifax
,
Nova Scotia
,
Canada
, was the largest man-made (accidental) explosion of the pre-nuclear era. It is hard to overstate the devastation that it wrought on the city. The entire residential and business area around
Halifax harbour
was leveled. It was completely destroyed. It left an estimated 2000 people
, 10,000 people injured and over 6000 homeless.
Commemorating 100 years of the tragedy
.
When the
Imo
, a
Norwegian
steamship carrying supplies for the
Belgian Relief Commission
, left
Halifax harbour
on December 6th, 1917, nobody could have foreseen catastrophic events that would unfold shortly after 0900 that fall morning. Neither could the crew of the
French
steamship
Mont

Blanc
who were steaming peacefully into
Halifax harbour
until they noticed that the
Imo
was off-course and they were on a collision course with the other ship. It might have been a "normal" seafaring accident with little or no loss of life if it weren't for the fact that the
Mont

Blanc
was carrying one hell of a lot of explosives, flammable chemicals and military ordinance.
Around 2.9 kilotons of it to be exact. The catalyst though, was the 246 tons of benzol, one of the most flammable and unstable fuels there is. The benzoyl had been stored in drums, lashed to the deck of the
Mount

Blanc
and when the
Imo
strayed off course and collided with the explosive-laden military ship, the benzoyl spilled and caught fire fast. Within seconds, the
Mount

Blanc
quickly became a deadly, ticking time bomb. The crew, unable to control the fuel-fed blaze, abandoned the ship. 20 minutes later the burning vessel, now a ghost ship, drifted into the busy and very crowded
Halifax harbour
.
It must have been quite a spectacular sight. A burning military ship adrift in the harbour approaching the pier. Firefighters trying to extinguish the blaze, curious onlookers gathering to get a better look and people looking out the windows of their homes at all the commotion. T